Allie in the South of Spain

Since Jose and I came back from spending the summer in Michigan we have had three indigent folks living under one of the portals in our apartment complex. At first I thought, wow that's sad. Look at those poor dwelling-challenged people. The economy is terrible. Boo hoo. I thought they would eventually move on. That has not been the case. They have set up shop and are there to stay. I have gone from feeling any real sympathy for them, to basically loathing them. It's just another reason why I can't wait to move to our new place. The list is growing as time goes by. These aren't your run of the mill panhandling, can you spare some change, not overly offensive group bums. Oh no. These are the get drunk (or drugged) and scream bloody murder at night kind of bums. These are most inventive profanity using whether or not there are kids and old people living in the buildings around you kind of bums.  These are the I'm afraid to walk my dog after dark kind of bu...

I am not good at making (nor keeping) resolutions. I have been reading recently about the idea of choosing one word for a year's worth of goals instead of making a bunch of resolutions you probably won't keep. People who have blogged about it say it is easier to do this because your word can grow and adapt throughout the year. It can be applied to different situations. The word should encompass your goals and what you would like to accomplish but isn't like saying, "I will lose 20 pounds." Some examples I had seen were: grow and simplify but it can be any word you want that you associate with things you would like to do, change or better to improve in your life. I hadn't made any real concrete resolutions this year but I have decided to adopt this one word resolution. Though it is coming a month late, my word for 2013 is CREATE . I would like to create a home here in Spain that I am excited to live in and that people will enjoy visiting. I want to have a...

Jose and I have bought several pieces of furniture for the new apartment from IKEA. Some of it has been easy to put together, like the shelves for the bathroom. Some has been a bit more difficult with something like 234 steps. These last few days we have been trying to get things put together so that when the kitchen is done we can get moved in quickly. This weekend we have been working on a dresser for our bedroom. Just putting together the frame took us one afternoon. The drawers should take us another day by my calculations. Why are we taking so long? First, because I have rushed through steps with other furniture and ended up jacking it up completely. Second, because we end up arguing about what the diagrams are showing, where things need to go, etc. It has been a test of our marriage. I think IKEA should offer counseling on their help line as well as instructions.

To drum up tourist interest in visiting Sevilla, this beautiful montage video was created. Sometimes I forget with the hustle and bustle of everyday life that I live in this amazing place. I am very lucky to call this city my second home. It really is a great place to visit and Jose and I are looking forward to our upcoming visits from friends and family. We are making sure that our guestroom is cozy and welcoming. Plus I am honing my towel animal folding skills. Come to Seville. Ven a Sevilla. It is more than worth the trip!

    This weekend Jose, Cooper and I went and visited Aracena, a city in the Huelva province which is in the mountains and which we had passes by several times on our way to visit other places. I kept saying when we would drive by that I would like to visit there since it was beautiful. It is a typical pueblo with white buildings and a castle that sits on top of a high hill overlooking the city. It has twisting streets and stones instead of pavements. Since it is farther north it was a bit cold and we drove through a lot of fog to get there but the day was beautiful.   First we parked and walked with Cooper through the city center and up to the castle which was converted into a church. When we finally reached the top we ended up running into one of Jose's best friends and his wife. They had decided to do some local tourism as well. It is a small world. The photo above shows the arch you have to walk under to reach the castle and ruins themselves.   Whe...

Here in the south of Spain (and actually throughout the majority of the peninsula) we are being hit by some type of weather pattern called cyclogenesis (which I had never heard of until now). According to wikipedia cyclogenesis is the development or strengthening of cyclonic circulation in the atmosphere (a low pressure area). Translation: bad ass storm. What this means in real life is that we have a ridiculous amount of wind and rain. It started last night and has been blowing all day. There are a lot of downed trees and I keep waiting to lose power. Looking out the window reminds me of Jurassic Park  when the fat guy from Seinfeld tries to get away with the stolen embryos and is eaten by the spitting dinosaur. Jose went to the new apartment this morning since we had someone coming to clean and buff the marble floors. He braved the terrible weather to get there early. When he arrived he found the floors covered in water. Apparently the rain was blowing in sheets ...

Last time I posted I mentioned that we were headed to finalize our kitchen plans. Well, it turns out that things didn´t go quite as planned. We originally felt very comfortable with the company we were going to work with but last week and this week things changed. Here is what happened: Jose and I decided to go with this company, we will call it GoodKitchens. We thought the estimate and design were both reasonable and had decided to have GoodKitchens order the cabinets and appliances (which would take about a month to manufacture). All we needed to do was pick out the colors and finalize exactly what we wanted. I had always had in mind that I wanted either gray or blue cabinets. After scouring the internet for ideas I found that inspiration pic that I posted in my last entry. I think it is beautiful and would go wonderfully with our new tile floors. We headed to GoodKitchens to pick the perfect shade of gray and when we arrived there was an older couple already working with the con...